Tournament Headquarters
AVE MARIA, Fla. – The Sun Conference has announced the seeds and pairings for the 2016 Sun Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament presented by Shula’s Hotel and Golf Club. The tournament, which begins on Tuesday with two quarterfinal matchups, will feature the top six conference teams based on each team’s finish in the regular season standings.
For the first time in program history, Southeastern will be the top seed and have home court advantage throughout the tournament. Southeastern will host the final four beginning on Friday. The Fire clinched the top seed with a 59-51 win over Keiser this past weekend to finish at 22-5 overall and 13-3 in TSC play.
Southeastern is led by junior Christin Strawbridge. The 6-2 forward is averaging 16 points and 9.3 rebounds on the season and has recorded 35 blocks. The Fire will receive a first round bye and will face the winner of the four-five matchup on Friday.
The defending conference tournament champions, St. Thomas, enters this year’s tournament as the two-seed after finishing the year with a 14-9 overall mark and a 13-3 record against TSC opponents. Southeastern defeated St. Thomas in both meeting to win the tiebreaker for the top-seed. The Bobcats will also receive an opening round bye.
St. Thomas has three players averaging over 13 points, led by Jamesha Willis. The 5-7 guard is averaging 14.9 points and is grabbing 6.2 rebounds per contest. She leads the team in steals with 69 and is second in assists with 56.
The first quarterfinal matchup on Tuesday will feature the third-seeded Webber International Warriors (18-10, 12-4 TSC) taking on the six-seed Warner University Royals (13-14, 7-9 TSC). Webber won both meetings this season. The Warriors came out on top 70-61 in Babson Park in January and then prevailed 79-73 in overtime in Lake Wales on Feb. 13.
Mar-Lisa Braxton will be the player to watch for the Warriors. Braxton leads the team in steals and assists with 57 and 84 on the season, respectively. She also averages 11.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. For Warner, the player to watch will be guard Mariah Williams. Williams has tallied 13.1 points and 4.2 boards per game this season and leads the Royals with 74 steals.
The second quarterfinal game will have the fifth-seeded Thomas Night Hawks (13-13, 8-8 TSC) hosting the sixth-seeded Keiser Seahawks (14-15, 7-9 TSC). Thomas won both regular season meetings by scores of 66-61 and 71-53.
The Night Hawks are led by forward Bra’shey Ali. Ali leads the team in points, rebounds, steals, assists, and blocks. She is averaging a double-double with 12.8 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. For Keiser, the player to watch will be guard Courtney Murphy. Murphy leads the Seahawks in scoring, averaging 16 points per contest. She has made 102 threes on the season and is shooting 38.2 percent from behind the arc.
The two winners of the quarterfinal games will travel to Southeastern for the final four with semifinals taking place on Friday, Feb. 26, and the championship game on Saturday, Feb. 27.